If you are not using Twitter's automatic retweet option and want to retweet someone else's post, it's important to give the original poster credit. You can do this by adding the person's username preceded by "RT" in the tweet. You can also tag other people in a retweet or tag it with a hashtag. When doing this, however, it's important that you don't make it appear that the original tweet said something it didn't. This is especially important if you are tweeting from a business account, since a breach in Twitter etiquette may have a negative backlash against your company or brand. Separating your own comments and tags in a retweet can help your followers understand you have added to the original tweet.

Quickly Compose a Manual Retweet

Step 1

Click the date stamp on the right side of any tweet. This opens the tweet in a separate page, making it easier to copy the entire tweet and the person's username at the same time.

Step 2

Place the cursor to the right of the last letter in the tweet. Hold down the mouse button, and drag the cursor up to the left side of the "@" symbol in the person's username above the tweet. Once the username and the tweet are highlighted, press "Control" and "C" on the keyboard to copy it.

Step 3

Click the "Compose" button in the upper right corner of the page. Press "Control" and "V" on the keyboard to paste the copied text into the compose field.

Step 4

Click the point to the left of the "@" symbol, type "RT" and then press the spacebar. The text is now in a manual retweet format such as "RT @username This is a tweet." Note that there must always be a space before the "@" symbol and after the person's username for Twitter to tag the tweet with that person's name.

Usernames, Hashtags and Retweet Etiquette

Step 1

Tag the manual retweet with another username if space allows by adding the new username before the "RT."

Step 2

Tag the retweet with a hashtag by typing the "#" symbol followed by the hashtag name before the "RT," such as "#hashtag RT @username tweet."

Step 3

Add a comment if desired before the "RT." Add comments or additional names after the original tweet only if you are certain no one will confuse your comment as part of the RT. Inserting a pipe symbol (vertical bar), a tilde or a dash can make it clearer that the comment is yours and not part of the original tweet.

Tip

Some users on Twitter use "MT" rather than "RT" to indicate a modified tweet. This gives you the ability to shorten the tweet or add your own words without misquoting the original poster.

References

About the Author

A published author and professional speaker, David Weedmark has advised businesses and governments on technology, media and marketing for more than 20 years. He has taught computer science at Algonquin College, has started three successful businesses, and has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines throughout Canada and the United States.